No person shall bury or cause to be buried within said District the body or part of the body of any deceased person, except in such grounds as were known and used as public or private burial grounds on January 1, 1902, or such as shall thereafter be designated by the Mayor of said District and authorized by him to be used as such.
(Mar. 3, 1901, 31 Stat. 1297, ch. 854, § 678.)
1981 Ed., § 27-121.
1973 Ed., § 27-121.
This section originated at a time when local government powers were delegated to a Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (see Acts Relating to the Establishment of the District of Columbia and its Various Forms of Governmental Organization in Volume 1). Section 401 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967 (see Reorganization Plans in Volume 1) transferred all of the functions of the Board of Commissioners under this section to a single Commissioner. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, 87 Stat. 818, § 711 ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.11), abolished the District of Columbia Council and the Office of Commissioner of the District of Columbia. These branches of government were replaced by the Council of the District of Columbia and the Office of Mayor of the District of Columbia, respectively. Accordingly, and also pursuant to § 714(a) of such Act ( D.C. Code, § 1-207.14(a)), appropriate changes in terminology were made in this section.
Structure District of Columbia Code
Title 43 - Cemeteries and Crematories
Chapter 1 - Cemetery Associations; Regulatory Provisions
§ 43–101. Incorporation; powers
§ 43–102. Powers to acquire and sell land
§ 43–103. Burial ground to be platted and surveyed
§ 43–104. Inclosure and ornamentation of land; purchase of equipment
§ 43–105. Duty to inclose and underdrain
§ 43–106. Application of proceeds of sales of lots
§ 43–107. Officers enumerated; term of office; effect of failure to choose officers
§ 43–108. Election of officers
§ 43–109. Lot owners are voting members of corporation
§ 43–111. Exemption from taxation and sale on execution
§ 43–112. Dedication of land; title vested in perpetuity
§ 43–113. Grants and bequests for care of lots
§ 43–114. Distance from City and from dwellings
§ 43–115. Mayor authorized to license certain lands for cemetery purposes
§ 43–116. Lots to be conspicuously marked; plat to be recorded; size and depth of graves
§ 43–117. Register of burials; contents
§ 43–118. Superintendent of cemetery to register at Department of Health
§ 43–119. Movement or disposal of tissue taken from dead body
§ 43–120. Keeping and exhibiting dead bodies
§ 43–123. Reopening graves; graves of pestilential disease victims
§ 43–124. Crematories; consent of property owners; permit
§ 43–125. Embalming; removal of tissue immediately after death
§ 43–128. Court-ordered disinterment or disposal of ashes not affected
§ 43–129. Cremation required in certain cases. [Repealed]
§ 43–130. Public crematory established. [Repealed]
§ 43–131. Act for promotion of anatomical science not affected by crematory law